Study of the expression levels of Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha and 3 beta in patients with different outcome of HBV infection.

Hepatocyte nuclear factors 4 alpha (HNF4α) and 3 beta (HNF3β) are members of a group of liver-enriched transcription factors (LETFs) that play important roles in regulating the replication of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and liver inflammation. However, the relationship of the level of HNF4α and HNF3β with the severity of HBV-infected liver diseases is unclear. In this study, liver tissue samples from different types of HBV patients were collected, and HNF4α and HNF3β expression were detected by immunohistochemistry. The expression of HNF4α was significant higher in patients with severe hepatitis B(SHB) than those with chronic hepatitis B(CHB) and liver cirrhosis(LC) (both P < 0.05), but similar between patients with CHB and LC (P > 0.05). And the expression of HNF3β was similar among patients with CHB, LC and SHB (P > 0.05 for all pairwise comparison). This suggests that the expression level of HNF4α was different in patients with different outcome of HBV infection, high expression level of HNF4α may correlate with occurrence of SHB

肝细胞核因子4α（HNF4α）和3β（HNF3β）是一组肝脏富集转录因子（LETFs）的成员，它们在调节乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）复制和肝脏炎症方面发挥重要作用。然而，HNF4α和HNF3β的水平与HBV感染性肝病的严重程度之间的关系尚不清楚。在本研究中，收集了不同类型HBV患者的肝组织样本，并通过免疫组织化学方法检测HNF4α和HNF3β的表达。HNF4α在重型乙型肝炎（SHB）患者中的表达显著高于慢性乙型肝炎（CHB）和肝硬化（LC）患者（两者均P < 0.05），但在CHB和LC患者之间相似（P > 0.05）。并且HNF3β在CHB、LC和SHB患者中的表达相似（所有两两比较均P > 0.05）。这表明HNF4α的表达水平在HBV感染不同结局的患者中存在差异，HNF4α的高表达水平可能与SHB的发生相关。